Slide Out Problem

fidaddy66 · 12-13-2011, 12:37 PM

Hello fellow Georgetownians
I have a (appox)1 foot tear in my floor on my 2010 330ts, It looks like the slide out rollers are literally coming up from the bottom causing the tear.
I took it in to Mike Thompson(dealer) and they stated the slide out was out of adjustment! I have a Western General extended warranty and they said they would not cover the cost of repairing the floor! Nor the adjustment cost! The dealer quoted me a price of $7200 to fix my floor!
My rig only has appox 4300 miles on it, I also have a leak coming from my Lippert stabalizers! Western General is sending an inspector to look at the leak, dealer says I need a new manifold and hoses! Can somebody please give me some advise as to what I need to do next, I don't know why I spent thousands of dollars on my RV and the EXTENED WARRANTY only to have more headaches!

donn · 12-13-2011, 12:55 PM

7200 to fix a floor! That is outrageous. When I had new vinyl flooring installed the labor for one day was a couple hundred dollars and the flooring was all of 150 dollars or so. Someone is ripping you off. Start calling floor covering dealers and ask which of their installers might want to work on an RV. That's what I did and got a fella that is pretty reasonable and does excellent work.

fidaddy66 · 12-13-2011, 01:43 PM

Thanks Donn, that's great advice! Going to do my Homework next time and be more prepared! Thanks for your reply.

cfsoistman · 12-13-2011, 01:55 PM

Contact Mike Burns at FR and see if he can help you. 2010 - still under warranty? or how far past. Give him a try. There might be an issue with that model and they may cover it.
mburns@forestriverinc.com

fidaddy66 · 12-13-2011, 04:40 PM

Thanks I will contact him, my warranty expired 12/26/10. Thanks for the contact info.

Trempert · 12-16-2011, 03:00 PM

I heard Mike Burns just resigned from FR. I think a gentleman by the name of "John" is taking calls for him.

fidaddy66 · 12-20-2011, 07:31 PM

Yes it's true I called and asked for Mike Burns and he no longer works there.
Thanks for letting me know.

georgetown · 12-28-2011, 11:43 PM

fidaddy66,
contact Dan Evans devans@forestriverinc.com
I had the same problems with my floor, out of warranty and similar mileage same unit that you have. I went through Mike Burns, then John Armstrong with no results or even answers to my emails. Finally went to the BBB and filed a complaint, Dan Evans replied after being contacted by the BBB and took care of things under warranty. The rollers cutting the floors are a common problem and they have made some changes to fix that apparently in the newer models. Took about 6 months to get things resolved but worked out in the end.

Lawfive · 12-29-2011, 10:54 AM

I agree that the $7,200 floor fix quote is very, very steep. Although I took my 2007 391 into Camping World and then to an independent shop to get quotes on replacing all my carpeting with wood flooring of some kind. Quotes were $15,000 and $10,000. The difficulty is pulling out the slides to get access to ALL the floor area. Takes some heavy equipment I guess. Still an area under one slide for $7,200 is nutty. I bought a $150 rug at Lowes and solved the entry appearance problem.

I've had my rig for over two years now. The dealer offered warranty which would have cost me about $4,000 would have expired. I've spent about $2,400 in repair money. I'm glad I passed on the contract. Hassling with a reluctant insurance company when you are already irritated about a problem strikes me as too aggravating.

fidaddy66 · 12-31-2011, 01:50 PM

Thanks for your Msg, I called Forest River and they want to see some pics. I had the dealer forward them to FR. Do you know how they made the rollers so they won't tear your floor? What did they do to remedy the problem? And after the fix will it happen again? If FR does not cover this repair I will be forced to go to the BBB.
Thx again

SEAYALL · 01-02-2012, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fidaddy66

Thanks for your Msg, I called Forest River and they want to see some pics. I had the dealer forward them to FR. Do you know how they made the rollers so they won't tear your floor? What did they do to remedy the problem? And after the fix will it happen again? If FR does not cover this repair I will be forced to go to the BBB.
Thx again

ya know color me crazy, but i was told by a tech awhile back that there were no rollers under the slide ... i understood it to be metal arms sliding into a metal sleeve ... wonder if theres pictures out there of how they work ....

campdohbrew · 01-02-2012, 01:33 PM

When a manufacturer discovers a bad design, there really should be a recall mechanism in place as to notify customers and take of business w/o a bunch of bull.

georgetown · 01-03-2012, 09:49 PM

The slides do have metal arms that run in sleeves as mentioned by harleydriven, they provide part of the drive mechanism that moves the slide in and out, however, they do not support all of the weight of the slide.

There is a set of rollers in the outside edge of the floor that the bottom of the slide rides on, and supports some of the slides weight, they don't cause the tearing problem.

The problem is with the other set of rollers which are mounted on the slide bottom close to the inside edge of the slide, which ride along the flooring and support the inside most weight of the slide. The constant back and forth motion of these rollers with the weight of the slide across the soft vinyl flooring eventually causes the rollers to cut or tear the flooring.

According to Forest River, I was told that they are replacing the rollers with a carpet pad on the newer units and the ones they fix under warranty. This did not make any sense to me either, since it's only a matter of time before sand, etc, gets into the carpet and causes similar problems, therefore, I did not want that done to ours and after a long battle, I replaced all the vinyl flooring with laminate and have not had a problem since. Forest River agreed to cover the cost of the laminate but not the labor, that's why I did it myself. I was told they do not install laminate at the factory because even though it would be stronger and better, if it had to be replaced for any reason under warranty the labor cost was too high and it is also too labor intensive at the dealer level to fix.

SEAYALL · 01-04-2012, 07:35 AM

Thanks Georgetown for that detailed info, really helps out, so i guess we're all doomed to fail at some point, i wish we could get a detailed diagram, sounds like there sound be some sort of nylon rub rail installed.. or something, so i'd guess coaches with ceramic tile would not have this problem. whoa, waking up to 17 degrees here Ga. thanks again
ps. yours is a 2010, how long is the warranty on something like that,i thought all warranty on things like that was gone after a yr . ?

georgetown · 01-05-2012, 01:14 PM

Warranty is one year. We bought ours earlier than we wanted to because of the deal we got, we were only looking at the time. The unit did not get much use until we headed south for the winter and at that time we were about 5 months out of warranty. During our trip is when our floor tore in several areas. At that time the unit had about 4000 miles on it mostly all from the trip, which was our first major trip with the unit. The slides couldn't have been in and out more than a dozen times at this point. We contacted Forest river and argued the point that this should not be happening on a unit with only 4000 miles on it and most of that was one trip. Between getting ignored by Forest River and getting the BBB involved, they agreed to cover the cost of the laminate if I installed it myself or had someone else install it, they would not cover the cost of labor unless the dealer did the floor and the dealer would not install laminate. That was fine by me, so i did it myself, because we did not want the same floor installed even with the fix they were proposing, since to me that was only going to be a patch job which would need fixing again down the road. we also had an issue of the counter top cracking, which was caused because of a twisting motion in the slide when it went in and out because they had forgot one of the rollers on the one corner of the slide as well, that was also fixed when i did the floor. If I can find a diagram or something that shows the rollers i will post it.

SEAYALL · 01-05-2012, 03:35 PM

wow, very good an good for your persistence .. have you seen 2012 models, we have the 378 with 3 slides. when i look at floor in corner of slides i see a huge nylon plate ... my point is i just wonder if they changed the set up .... i surfed all over web of places i can think an can't find a diagram, i just like to educated myself as much as i can on these things.here's my email add. if you like to send some pic's, would love to see your laminate . thanks for the info ....
harleydriven62@yahoo.com

georgetown · 01-06-2012, 10:45 PM

It sounds like they have made some changes because mine does not have any nylon pads just rollers, they are nylon though. I guess their original plan they were talking to me about with a carpet pad didn't work out so they went to nylon??? I think the nylon should work OK, definitely better than the carpet solution they told me about. I don't have any pictures of the laminate and they unit is covered up for the winter as we won't be heading anywhere until the spring. I can if you like hang on to your email and send you some as so as I get a chance to open up the slides and take some. The laminate that I used is not a wood look, instead, it's the DuPont Real Touch laminate in a stone pattern. It's very similar to to the pattern you have in your 2012 but in a laminate.

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